Sausage and Lentil Stew

Though this stew may not look like something one ought to eat in summer weather, it isn’t quite as rich as your usual stew and has just the right amount of kick to make it a perfectly summery dish. It’s also fairly light, if you use a conservative amount of sausage, because it is almost entirely devoid of carbs. The lightness and abundance of vegetables make it very healthy too.

These one-pot, or in this case one-pan, dishes are perfect if you want a no-hassle meal, which I guess is the reason I cook so many of them. Another benefit of one-pot eating is that all of the flavours permeate every aspect of the dish. For these reasons it could perhaps be said that one-pot cooking is the perfect way to cook. I must also stress the need for good quality sausages in this recipe, although of course that doesn’t necessarily mean a lot of money needs to be spent; be thrifty. If served with the obligatory bread this recipe will adequately feed two or even three at a push, and should take a mere 40 minutes to cook.

Sausage and Lentil Stew {recipe}

Serves 4

Ingredients:

3 thick pork sausages

4tbsp red lentils

350ml vegetable stock

1 medium onion, finely diced

1 large carrot, diced

2 cloves of garlic, mashed and chopped

tsp fresh or dried rosemary, chopped

1/2tsp chilli flakes

400g chopped tomatoes

oil

seasoning

Method:

First, you’re going to want to fry off your sausage until almost entirely browned. Set the sausages aside and fry the onions in their juices until the become translucent.

To the cooked onions add the garlic, carrots, chilli flakes and rosemary. Fry for 5 minutes. Then add the stock, lentils, tomatoes, seasoning. Cut the sausages into 3 large chucks, diagonally and put in the pot. Cover with a lid and cook on a medium heat for around half an hour, or until the lentils are ready.

Serve in a bowl with bread on the side, a recipe for which you can find here. If you want brown or wholemeal bread simply use the requisite flour.

Cost:

The whole meal, not including bread or spread comes out at about £1.05 per portion. If you bake the bread yourself you can expect to add around 10p to that if not, maybe 25p.

2 comments on “Sausage and Lentil Stew”

OMG that looks SO good. My boyfriend is a chef in a cafe (my blog’s at http://accidentalgastronomer.wordpress.com/). I’m printing this with your permission and telling him to make it for a special next week. If that’s okay with you. I’ll of course give you full credit and even print this to go with the special.
Gentle Breezes,
Maureen